[:en]Masami Tsukagoshi
Hometown in Japan: Takayama
University in Japan: Shinshu University
Major & School Year: Animal Science, B3: Junior
Host Advisor: Prof. Natasha Kirienko, Dept. of BioSciences
Host Lab: Kirienko Lab: Caenorhabditis elegans
Research Poster (PDF): “Role of Kinases in Caenorhabditiselegans Immunity Against Pseudomonasaeruginosa PA14″

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Why TOMODACHI STEM @ Rice University?
Ever since I was a child, I have had a vague dream of working internationally. When I think about having more global experiences for my future goal, it might be possible just to go to the U.S and travel by myself. However, it is not so easy to stay at a university, belong to a lab, conduct research, visit world-class companies and organizations, and communicate with lots of people. The TOMODACHI STEM Program @ Rice University gives me the opportunity to do all of those things and is, therefore, extremely attractive.

The U.S is a world-leading country in STEM research. Rice University is no exception, conducting cutting-edge and interdisciplinary research in the international environment. I suppose there will be lots of difficulties in conducting specialized research in English for the first time, however, I would strongly like to challenge myself. I am sure it will be inspiring to meet great leaders and see the surrounding environments in the final week study tour on the East Coast. In addition, the U.S. is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. Opportunities to interact with people from different backgrounds and learn more about American culture  are bound to broaden my horizon. I am eager to absorb everything I hear, see and experience throughout the TOMODACHI STEM @ Rice University Program.

Goals

• Experience cutting-edge research and acquire more scientific knowledge and skills
• Improve both my daily conversational skills and academic skills in English
• Enjoy communicating with people: both in America and with the other participants from Japan

TOMODACHI STEM: Post-Program

• My favorite experience in the U.S. was interacting with lots of people from different backgrounds as well as having many kinds of foods, including Tex-Mex, pecan pie and Texas BBQ.
• Before I left for the U.S, I wish I had collected more information not only on my research project but also American history and culture.
• While I was in the U.S. I wish I had more time to explore cities and reached more people to learn about their career paths. 

Excerpts from Masami’s Weekly Reports

• Week 01: Arrival in the U.S.
• Week 02: First Week at Research Host Lab
• Week 03: Interview With a Female Researcher
• Week 04: Research in the U.S. vs. Research in Japan
• Final Research Poster Presentation
• Week 05: Science & Technology Policy Study Tour
• Final Report
• Tips for Future Participants

Week 01: Arrival in the U.S.

I cannot believe that I have already spent a week away from Japan. My first few days in Houston were filled with a lot of surprises; the large portions of dishes, colorful foods in grocery stores, right-hand cars, very few pedestrians on the streets, restrooms with large empty spaces, people wearing short sleeve shirts on a cold day, fantastic murals around the city, etc. I also like the friendly atmosphere here in Houston. People often smile at me when I pass someone on a street. Furthermore, people often say “Hi, how are you?” “Where are you going?” or “How was your day?” when I am in the elevator or shuttle bus. I rarely make eye contact nor talk with strangers in Japan. Such daily communication always makes my warms my heart and cheers me up.

Our life at Rice University started on Monday and the Rice University campus tour was a great start for the coming four weeks. I learned that the campus was relatively small in the U.S., however, I got lost and ended up asking directions many times this week on campus. Meanwhile, I found lots of well-designed buildings around the campus. For instance, Duncan Hall has beautifully painted ceilings and bright colored walls, stairs and pillars, which makes me feel as if I were in a recreational facility. The “Frog wall” makes the sound of a frog croaking sound when we touch and move our fingers over, implying it is an architecture building. The “Bull and bear” statues imply the building is the business school since “bull and bear” are terms used to describe stock market conditions. I am glad to spend a month on the beautiful campus as a Rice student. (For more, see “Rice University’s Secret Symbols, Indisde Jokes, and Elaborate Pranks”).

We had various activities and seminars at Rice University during this first week. I was especially inspired by the “Introduction to Research in the U.S” seminar by Prof. Kono. Graduate students, both master’s and doctoral students in Japan, are paid in the U.S, which I found totally different from Japan where many graduate students work part time jobs to make their living. It is a great environment to concentrate on our own research. The seminar on “Designing and Developing a Research Poster” by Dr. Gayle Moran was helpful too. Without any previous experience making a poster, I had been a bit nervous about making poster presentation after only four weeks of research internship. However, I now understand the factors to make a poster attractive, such as color, space, size, and having clear headlines and captions. I also learned how they can influence people’s first impression by analyzing and comparing multiple sample posters. I am now confident in myself and look forward to the presentation.

To finish my first week, I visited Houston Museum of Natural Science and Houston Zoo with other Japanese participants. What attracted my eyes the most were the specimens at the museum. They were like art works, not academic works, with some arranged according to color gradation and some arranged in flower shapes. They are definitely worth a visit since we can enjoy a wide range of exhibitions for free with our powerful Rice ID.

Initial Reflections on Intercultural Experiences in the U.S.
It was at the welcome party when I encountered one of the core U.S values, “time is money”. As soon as we sat down at the table together, my host professor and mentor started to talk about my research project. I was confused at that time since I had expected that we would talk more about ourselves and our background there and talk about research details at the lab. I had thought that the party, where there were many other participants, was an opportunity to get to know each other for the first time rather than to have a specific conversation from the beginning. This “getting straight to the point” attitude reflects how efficiency is important in the U.S. It also reflects a Japanese value I have “Ba”, which is “to enjoy general conversation at first rather than to destroy the atmosphere with specific topics”.

I have also realized one of the Japanese core values, “human relationships” lying in myself every time I have an English conversation. I am usually careful of what I say and how I say when I talk to older people in Japanese. I sometimes find myself trying to be polite rather than enjoying the conversation itself. It probably because using “keigo” (an honorific way of speaking in Japanese) and showing my respect is one of the important tips to establish a good relationship with others; especially with elders. Meanwhile, I tend to express myself more freely and enjoy conversations regardless of age when I communicate in English.

Preparing for Research in the U.S. and First Few Days in the Lab
In the beginning of January, about two weeks after sending my introduction email, I was given a research topic by Prof. Kirienko. This will be “to test the role of a special subclass of kinases in two different C. elegans – P.aeruginosa pathogenesis assays, slow killing and liquid killing”. She also referred me to my mentor, a female postgraduate from Indonesia. To prepare for my project in advance, I started by going through some background materials that my mentor provided, including one webpage, three papers, and one research videos.

As soon as I joined in the lab, my mentor gave me the details of my research project. She is cheerful and answers every question I have readily and clearly, although she looks busy. After that, I received a lab-specific safety training by a lab safety advisor. My first day at the lab ended with practicing picking up worms, which is a very specific basic technique to conduct my further experiment. Since I missed the lab meeting which is held every Monday, I am now looking forward to joining in the American-style meeting for the first time next week.

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Week 02: First Week at Research Host Lab

My usual day at the research lab starts at 8:00 a.m. After a brief, ten minute meeting with my mentor to confirm what to do, I spend almost the whole morning in scoring for the slow killing (as described below in the research update section). After a lunch break, I do other tasks, such as growing bacteria and worms, preparing media, and so on. I finish lab work around 5-6 p.m. and walk back to the hotel. I am really glad that I can work on my experiment all day since it is a precious opportunity to work on C.elegans for the first time and I cannot experience this yet in Japan.  On the other hand, I would also like to spend more time reading papers to deepen my background understanding. It is a kind of inner conflict within myself and I wish I had more time to stay and work here. In addition to the experiment, I also participate in our lab meeting that is held every Monday. I had expected somehow it would be different from a Japanese lab meeting, however, it was rather similar. One significant difference was everyone was having snacks and coffee during the meeting. I also have the opportunity to sit-in on in an undergraduate biochemical class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Since I have already taken a similar biochemistry class in Japan, this is a great opportunity to review what I have learned and improve my technical vocabulary in English.

With regard to my English ability, I do not have as many big communication problems as I used to have. For example, I hated making phone calls before since I could not easily catch what people were saying in Enlgish on the phone, however, now I do not mind talking on the phone anymore. I cannot understand everything perfectly, but mostly, I understand what my mentor says at the lab or what the professor says in the biochemistry class. Now, what I need to improve the most is my speaking skills. I sometimes find it hard to express my feeling as I am not really a talkative person and prefer listing to others to talking by myself; even in Japanese. However, I will try to speak to more people and enjoy conversations since I believe using a language is the best way to acquire a language.

We had a seminar “Career and Research Journey: From Industry to Academia” by Prof. Akane Sano on Friday, which was really inspiring. I used to think about getting a job in Japan straight after university graduation. However, through my past exchange experience in Australia, I saw many people with different backgrounds and careers and realized this was not only an option for my future. By listening to Prof. Sano’s story, who has a similar background to me as a woman in a STEM field, it confirmed for me again the various future choices and importance of seeking out new challenges, and not limiting myself to just one possible path.

It was a busy but fulfilling this weekend. On Saturday, I got up at 6:30 and worked at the lab as usual in the morning. In the afternoon, I went to Central Market with Natsumi-san and I got excited by the “American-sized” market. I also had a chance to talk with her about graduate study while having a delicious sandwich and soup for lunch there. Her story and advice was really helpful and motivated me. I really appreciate her time, kindness, and support. I then went to a Taiwanese Night Market that was held at Student Center with my lab mates Saturday night and enjoyed Taiwanese food and games. I will keep working hard and enjoying myself next week.

Research Project Update

My research project is “to test the role of a special subclass of kinases in two different C,elegans – P.aeruginosa pathogenesis assays; slow killing and liquid killing”. P.aruginosa is a type of bacteria found widely in the environment, such as in soil and in water. It is known as an opportunistic pathogen, which is normally not harmful but can cause infection when hosts have a weakened immune system; one of the serious concerns in hospitals worldwide. On the other hand, C.elegan is a tiny transparent worm with only 1,000 cells and a well-established model in biomedical studies. This project aims to identify kinases involved in C.elegans immune system against different P.aeruginosa infection mechanisms.

I started by growing E.coli that express dsRNAs. The E.coli was used to feed C.elegans and knockdown certain C.elegans kinase genes. This is known as the RNA interference (RNAi) method. I also grew P.aeruginosa to infect C.elegans in two different ways; slow killing and liquid killing. Slow killing was conducted on agar plates and the number of dead worms was scored every morning. On the other hand, liquid killing was conducted in well plates filled with liquid media and the dead worms were dyed at some points. While slow killing took around a week to finish, liquid killing only took a few days. Basic timeline is as follows:

• Day 1: Grow E.coli on
• Day 2: Grow E.coli for 6 hours
• Day 3: Drop worms, Grow P.aeruginosa, Make slow killing (SK) plates
• Day 4: Shift worms to 25C, Spread P.aeruginosa on SK plates
• Day 5: Shift SK plates to 25C
• Day 6: Start liquid killing (LK), Start SK, Grow E.coli on for the next cycle
• Day 7 – : SK scoring, LK timepoint, Grow E.coli for 6 hours for the steecond Cycle

In addition, I practiced picking up worms during first week since slow killing requires a technique to move worms from one plate to another without hurting the worms or damaging the agar. I plan to do this cycle two more times, although I will not finish the third cycle by the time I leave. Next week, I am going to start the second slow killing and liquid killing. I also would like to talk more with lab members and learn more about their projects in my lab.

Question of the Week
I found that Rice University provides various opportunities to appreciate fine arts, such as a free orchestra on Friday and a new art exhibit at BRC and opera held on coming Wednesday. Is it special to Rice University or is it common in American universities?

• Yes, most U.S. universities have a mixture of fields/departments and they all hold special events and activities on campus and there are often extracurricular events such as sports, art exhibits, and festivals held throughout the year too.  Rice, in particular, has one of the top music schools in the United States and President Leebron has championed the expansion of Public Art and the building of the new Moody Art Center over the past 10 years.  Also, since Rice is a relatively small university, it is pretty easy to learn about events on campus from your friends, flyers posted on bulletin boards in buildings, and social media like Facebook post on the department’s FB page.
• If you attend a different university in the U.S. in the future, be sure to watch the campus event calendar, look at flyers posted in buildings, and like the Facebook pages for the academic departments, centers and research groups, clubs, or programs that you are interested in. You should also sign up for any e-mail list-servs or newsletters for students in your academic department or for offices like OISS.  Finally, be sure to regularly check your university email address.  Don’t just delete the emails the university or department sends you as you may miss out on important information if you are not regularly reading these emails.  You’ll likely find lots of interesting activities and events you might want to attend in your free time that are open to all campus community members at the U.S. university you attend.

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Week 03: Interview With Female Researchers

This week, I interviewed two women in my lab; Elissa Tjahjono, who is my mentor, and Prof. Natasha Kirienko, who is my host professor.

Elissa’s journey in biology, more specifically in molecular biology, started in her home country, Indonesia. She received her undergraduate degree in biotechnology at a local university. She then decided to continue her graduate studies overseas since choices in the scientific field in Indonesia were limited. After completing a 1-year master’s degree in Scotland, she started her PhD at Rice University to continue research on C.elegans. Through the interview, I was especially inspired by her passion to pursue her academic interests across borders. For example, she told me that she literally looked up every lab around the world working on C.elegans once she got interested in C.elegans research during her master’s program. Her passion is also clear from her daily attitude; coming to the lab first thing every morning and engaging in experiments. Her attitudes, haveing a global perspective and enjoying research, has motivated me as I too am thinking to work internationally in the future.

On the other hand, Prof. Kirienko received her undergraduate and master’s degree in her home country, Russia. After completing a PhD in Wyoming and working as postdoc at Harvard Medical School, she joined Rice University. Throughout the interview, she did not seem to believe it was a special thing to be a woman in a STEM field. She told me that she managed to publish seven papers while doing a PhD and raising a child, whereas some male colleagues published only a few papers. She also told me that every career had challenges and it was not limited to women in STEM when I asked if she had any struggles. I learned that working hard and doing your best is essential no matter where you are, if you are a minority, or how hard the situation is.

“Don’t be afraid”, both of them said exactly the same words when I asked them for advice for women in STEM. It surprised and reminded me of my application to this TOMODACHI @ Rice University Program. I actually hesitated to apply for this program at first, although I was attracted to the wonderful program the moment I found out about it. I thought I would never be selected as a participant among the excellent applicants from all over Japan. I did not have the confidence in myself to do a research internship either. (It is still like a dream that I am enjoying research and my stay in Houston with other great participants!) The advice from Elissa and Prof. Kirienko made me feel proud of myself who took a step forward at that time which has brought me this wonderful time. It also encouraged me to take every opportunity and challenge myself in the future.

I did not have many opportunities to join in extra activities this week as I focused on lab work and making my poster. However, I finally had a chance to eat Venezuelan food! I love and had been missing Venezuelan dishes, especially cachapas and arepas, since I had them in Australia for the first time. I had been looking for a Venezuelan restaurant in Japan, however, the restaurants I found were only in Tokyo, and was far to visit. As the U.S is multicultural country where people are coming from all over the world, it was one of my goals to try various foods, including Venezuelan foods, during my stay in the U.S. To tell the truth, I was so happy that I could not help having cachapas and arepas four days in a row since I would probably not be able to have them for a while in Japan.

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Week 04: Research in the U.S. vs. Research in Japan

Throughout the four weeks of my research internship, I often heard lab members and my host professor talking about their experiment method, schedule, or analyzing their data together. At our lab meeting, I also saw them not hesitating to ask questions and exchange their opinions actively. Moreover, Prof. Kirienko said “everyone is welcome to our lab as long as the person can communicate”, when I asked her about lab’s diversity as part of the female researcher’s interview. Actually, the interactive attitude in research environments was one of the surprising things for me when I first joined a research lab at my home university half a year ago since I was rather used to “passive style of learning” like lectures before that. “Active communication and discussion” must be one of the most important rules and values in academic research environment whether you are in the U.S or in Japan, or even if you are with other students or professors.

This week, I focused on continuing working on my research project as well as preparing for my poster symposium. As for the project, I spent morning in scoring for the slow killing every day as usual until Friday. I also started another liquid killing on Monday. Overall, I have done slow killing three times and liquid killing four times, although I did not finish the last experiments by the time I left Houston. As for the actual poster presentation, it was hard but more fun to design my poster.  My poster got much more attractive from the first draft thanks to feedback from many people, including Sarah, Dr. Moran, my mentor Elissa, Prof. Kirienko, and other lab members. My lab members also arranged a meeting so I could practice and gave me lots of advice too. I really appreciated their help.

Although I had been worried throughout the week, I was rather excited on the day of poster session. It was really fun to talk about my research and 1.5 hours flew by in the blink of any eye. I learnt not only many important tips as a presenter; how to design/present my poster, but also some important points as a listener through this experience. I was extremely happy to be asked questions and hear comments during the symposium, no matter what kind of questions/comments they were. This made me realize that showing our interest in words, not just nodding or smiling, could be a great way to communicate and learn a lot from a speaker. In addition, I would like to put more importance on “active interaction with my audience” as a speaker in the future. I tried my best to give a clear general explanation and confirm their understanding by asking “is it clear so far?” or “does it make sense?” etc. this time. However, I forgot to learn about people’s background; whether they had knowledge in bioscience or not.  If I had known my audience more, I would have been able to give more effective explanations for their understanding level and enjoy deeper conversation. “Direct communication between presenters and audience” must be one of the most important and exciting parts of a poster symposium.

This week I also had an opportunity to have a talk with leaders thorough a Panel Discussion at Dow Chemical. It was really interesting to learn about their totally different past and future career paths. Some told me how internships were life-changing for them and advised me to take as many internship opportunities as possible. Some said they took/were going to take degrees in another field while working in order to broaden their future choices. It encouraged me to challenge myself to consider various things, not shutting possibilities off for myself.

Question of the Week
I heard that some leaders at Dow Chemicals had got/were thinking to get another degree in the near future. Is it common in the U.S to pursue academic goal while working and try to get degree in multiple fields over long period?

• Yes, one thing that is not uncommon is that after working for a company for 1 – 3 years you may take a leave of absence or even quit to back to school and get your Master’s degree.  Sometimes, companies will even pay you to take courses towards your graduate degree.  There are also students that work full time and also do their graduate degree at the same time too – either in evening/weekend courses or via online programs. 
• It is less common to do this as Ph.D. student, but there are still some fields where this is done such as Education where it is very common that teachers will work full time and take an evening/part-time Ph.D. program or intensive coursework during the summer breaks. Another route that people may take is to get a full-time job at a university that allows employees to take 1 or more classes for free or at a reduced cost each semester.  If the class is offered during your normal working hours, you would have to get approval from your supervisor to be out of the office and then ‘make up’ those hours.
• The ability to combine full-time work and part-time studies (or vice versa) varies from field to field and person to person but one thing to know about the U.S. educational system is that there are no fixed/set paths. You can get a high school degree and then work for many years and come back to get your undergraduate degree decades later as an adult.  You can graduate with your undergraduate degree, work for a time, and then come back either full or part-time and get your graduate degree.  There are also certificate programs and other online learning opportunities that may be offered within your field or nearby universities that could help advance your career.
• If you want to become a professor, then the ‘typical’ path UG –> Ph.D. –> Post-doc –> Tenure Track Professor Position is the ideal but even then there are variances and people may take different paths such as UG –> Work in Industry –> Master’s Degree –> Work in Industry –> Ph.D. –> then become a professor.  While the ‘typical’ path in academia is more common, if you speak with professors who have strong ties with industry you may find they took a slightly different path or they may share stories of their former studies who have taken interesting paths too.
• See below for some of the professional Master’s programs that are offered at Rice.  Remember though, typically you will have to pay individually for a Master’s program but if you are admitted to a joint M.S./Ph.D. program (especially in STEM) you will have more opportunities for research assistantships that will pay for your tuition and give you a stipend in return for you working as a research assistant for a professor.
  • Rice Professional Master’s Programs
  • Rice Continuing Studies Master’s Degree Programs
  • Rice Online Learning

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Final Research Overview

Research Poster (PDF): “Role of Kinases in Caenorhabditiselegans Immunity Against Pseudomonasaeruginosa PA14″

I worked with Prof. Kirienko and my mentor, Elissa, during the past four weeks. My research aim was to develop immunity against the pathogen P.aeruginosa, using a tiny worm C.elegans. I used two established assays: Slow Killing assay and Liquid Killing assay, each of them caused under different virulence mechanisms. In the previous studies, five kinase genes were found to be upregulated in the liquid killing assay, which suggested their possible role in C.elegans immunity against P.aeruginosa. Therefore, in this project, I knocked down each of the genes and observed what would happen in C.elegans’ survival/death rate. As a result, I found two genes, one in Slow Killing and the other in Liquid Killing, which might play a role in the immunity.

In order to confirm this, further studies are needed with more replicates since result inconsistency was observed. P.aeruginosa is a serious concern, especially in the healthcare environment, since its multi-drug resistance; making it hard to eradicate. If we are able to understand the role of the relevant kinases, control their expression and further improve our immune system, this can be a great strategy against P.aeruginosa in the future.

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Week 05: Science & Technology Policy Study Tour

It was a wonderful week to broaden my horizons and confirm the diverse options for my future. After the very interesting seminar on satellites and space exploration at the JAXA Washington DC office, we had a chance to talk more with Mr. Urabe, who is a visiting researcher at NASA. He told us lots of choices to get involved in space activities, even from biological aspects. For example, there are people from bioscience backgrounds working with JAXA, including Chiaki Mukai, who is famous as the first Japanese female astronaut. There are also various space biology studies going on, including a silkworm experiment. I used to see getting a job in a directly related field with my degree, such as the food industry or health industry, after the graduation as the best way. On the other hand, I would not like to limit my future options only in such fields although I enjoy my field. He made me realize that there could be various ways to transfer my technical knowledge and skills into various fields.

I also had great opportunities to learn about myself this week. At Lehigh University, we examined our individual top five strengths from our StrengthsFinder results. In addition, we had an informal discussion to give only “positive feedback” with each other when we were all waiting at a cafe just before the dinner with TOMODACHI MetLife Women’s Leadership Program students. It was a bit embarrassing but great to know what I looked like to others and aspects of myself that I had not been aware of. I sometimes feel not so confident in myself, however, this feedback has given me the energy to stay true to myself. At the same time, I have found lots of points that I would like to improve by finding others’ strength. I feel that there is no need to compare myself with others but it is important to learn from others.

In my free time in Washington DC, I went to Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and U.S. Botanic Gardens. I could not believe such excellent exhibitions were free and I wish I had had more time to explore. I hope I can visit all of the Smithsonian museums someday!

Now that I am back in Japan, I strongly feel that the five-week experience has stimulated my interests a lot. My home faculty has its own campus surrounded by nature. It is a great learning environment, however, it is difficult for me to have interactions with students from other faculties or universities. In today’s world with advanced technology, we can easily get information about anything whenever we want or wherever we are through the internet. I tend to check the internet first when I am curious about something, making great use of the technology. While it is a great way to deepen my interest, it can shut down access to other interesting information. If I am not interested in, I would not likely to go deeper into. In this point, this program provided me with an excellent chance to have true communication beyond both academic and non-academic fields. It was really fun to talk with people from other fields and learn about their area of interests which were completely different from mine. I am now interested not only in biology but also volcanos, dinosaurs, plants, robotics, space, American history, places where others come from and many other things, and trying to keep my eyes open for various information every day.

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Final Report

When speaking to program sponsors/funders, I would tell how this program has broadened my mind internationally and interdisciplinarily. I had been interested in graduate schools abroad, however, I felt it unrealistic and unachievable. In this point, this program gave me a precious opportunity to gain true information, experiences and connections with U.S. students and professors. Although I am still unsure which way I would choose, a U.S. graduate school is now one of my possible future options. Moreover, this program also enabled me to listen to many people in STEM, from both academia and industry, which made me realize that there are many possible fields where I can transfer my knowledge and skills after graduation. Back in Japan, I am now taking various future choices across borders and fields into consideration, thinking of what I really hope to do.

When speaking to my family members, I would say “networking” is the most important thing I learned. I met nine wonderful participants, who I hope to keep in touch with in order to support and stimulate each other in the future. I met many role models to look up to as a woman in as well as a person, many people who have shown me various career paths and possibilities, and many people who always supported me. Every time I met a new person, I learned new perspectives and gained new motivation. I appreciate every networking opportunity I had during the program.

When speaking to a professor, I would say the most important thing I learned is how deep and interesting biology is. It was really exciting to do experiments, have a discussion, and see totally different approaches in immunological studies. I also enjoyed listening to biological professors and students about their passion, interests and research projects. Although I can say I used to be a relatively passive learner, I am now eager to acquire new knowledge and skills and looking forward to conducting further graduate research.

When speaking to a future employer, I would talk about my strengths I realized through the program. During the research internship, I sometimes got upset since I could not obtain my desired results several times. It was an experiment that required a long time and I had “limited” chances to do this in the four weeks I was at Rice. However, as I knew I had “limited” time, I soon changed my mind and started talking with my mentor to find out what I could do and to reschedule as needed. This experience strengthened my emotional resilience and flexibility and will be helpful to me when dealing with challenging situations in the future.                                                                                      

When speaking to other students at my university, I would say we should try to step out from our comfort zone and dive into new environments. It is sometimes challenging, however, it must give us a great chance to learn new things, expand our networks, and enrich our choices. If I get interested in something in the future, I will definitely choose “to apply” and just challenge myself.

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Tips for Future Participants

Pre Departure Tips: Learn about U.S. history before the departure. You will have a chance to see/visit some historical monuments, such as Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the National Mall and Library of Congress in D.C. If you have a basic knowledge of U.S. history, you will enjoy these visits more.

Packing Tips: It is not required but can be helpful to bring a luggage scale. You will probably struggle with the weight limit after enjoying shopping and buying souvenirs. The luggage scale, which one of my friends had, really helped everyone at the end of the program. I also recommend to bring gym clothes. Getting some exercise at the hotel gym or Rice gym can be a great way for a change.

What to eat in the U.S: Try Hopdoddy burgers if you go to Rice Village! You should also try Venezuelan dishes. There is a Venezuelan restaurant called “Gusto Gourmet” near Trader Joe’s.

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